Wasps, Windows and Weston’s Walls

Are we skipping around enough for you?! I know I’m not done with the dining room or laundry room or the exterior stuff….but I must share a little update I tackled in my youngest’s room. As you may know, the floor plan on the top floor is a little crazy. It’s not exactly how I would necessarily design it myself but it works for now…and the fact that we had two boys first in our family helps us plan for the future. I’ll explain all that TMI later.

First, the floor plan…

As you can see, there are four true bedrooms upstairs. The master bedroom will probably remain ours. most likely. The guest bedroom will probably remain the guest bedroom for a long time. And the Jill room is actually the “Will” room. There is also a “Jack” bedroom that shares a bathroom with the Will room that we call the blue room. Here’s why…

Oh yes. It is blue. Very very blue. In fact…the color is actually much closer to the background of this photo…

It’s like a member of the blue man group drank neon and then spontaneously combusted on our walls. Oh but it was worst before the new carpet…(cover your retinas!)…

Yes. yes indeedy. That is matching walls and carpet. So we had a bunch of furniture in there at one point and I asked Jeremy to move the bed to the basement…and then I sweated to the oldies moving the dressers. My muscles are humongous now. Seriously…why do I not just move furniture all the time?! It’s like the ultimate workout. I’m waiting for the DIY network to pick up a series on that….Extreme Makeover : Home & Hips.

So anyway…it was a surprise to show Jeremy after he got home one day…the room was finally empty and ready for painting. Almost.

You see, the plan is to have the room ready for Weston by the time he is ready to sleep in there. Right now we are doing exactly what we did with Will…having him sleep in our room at night in a pack n play and then co-sleep half the night until he’s about ten months old. That means we only have about three months to get this space finished. The biggest problem with getting the nursery ready was the fact that there was a big issue with the window…

You see, the window itself is vinyl and is coming out of the wood frame because the wood was water damaged and warped. There was also a fair amount of rot that needed repair. It actually was a literal pain in the foot because the window frame would allow for wasps to nest inside…and we would constantly need to keep the doors closed so we didn’t find those stinging insects all over the house. And every time we had a guest in there, we would spray the window and then put packing tape on the seams. Classy huh!? But better than a wasp sting to the face.

We kept spraying the frame for the nest but we knew that it would just keep happening until the wood repairs would be made. So when the painters came to prep the house for paint, the first thing they did was secure everything and remove the rot. That meant, I could start painting!!!

And then this happened.

Yup. That would be me…in the entrance area of Home Depot with spilled paint all over the floor and on the wheel of my stroller. Erg.

After I got home, silently screamed at lady luck, put both boys down for a nap, I got to work…

It’s Benjamin Moore’s Metropolitan color matched to Behr paint. I was really pleasantly surprised that it covered really really well. I only did one coat and so far, there is only two areas that need a little bit more coverage.

Of course the trim is still the tannish brownish cream color…which is desperately crying out for white. Jeremy and I always said that we would spray the trim after the window got fixed but once we got to the point where the furniture was out, we both changed our minds. We both said…why go through all that stress? It would be such a disaster if the paint got on the carpet and we just don’t want to risk it. So now I am back at the point where I need to do the whole multiple coats of white paint thing to get it right. But the good news is….there aren’t any stinging insects in there.

And the walls are officially painted the very surprising gray. (ok ok…nobody is surprised by that one). Next on the to-do list is paint the trim and then paint the ceiling. Then we are ready for an accent wall (you know me and accent walls!) and then we can do move-in of furniture and then finally move in of our little man.

Although I have to admit…Jeremy and I recently have discussed moving both boys permanently into our bed. We love having them with us. Of course, the whole notion of growing up is completely out of the question.

haha. Nope. And then they gave me a replacement gallon for free. I think they felt really sorry for me. Also, I think the paint mixer person didn’t put the lid on correctly…and I think they didn’t want to be responsible for my stroller. Either way, the customer service guy was really nice.
xo – kb

i’m just curious: you mentioned painting the ceiling AFTER doing the walls? any reason for the order? i dread painting ceilings… do you have any tips to share? i have one waiting for me, as soon as i get up the energy to repair past “repairs”, then wash it (there was a bunk bed, so there are footprints on the ceiling. awesome, i know.)

I’ve got ceilings on my to-do list for next week- scrape off the texture and paint them. I’m going to start with small rooms and see how my shoulders and neck handle it.

Here’s my question- Do you have a go-to color for ceilings? Also, what finish do you get? (Flat paint would hide a lot of my mistakes, but some sheen would bounce light around a bit.) What’s your preference?

I’m excited to see what you’ve got up your sleeve for Weston’s room. 🙂

We want the kids to share…so having two boys first means that we can have them share Will’s room when baby number three comes (no I am not preggo just planning for the future) and that baby can go in the ‘nursery’ or Weston’s current room. Then when baby number four comes (again not pregnant), we can change the guest room into one of the kids rooms. I figure that will be at least five years down the line.
xo – kb

Awesome plan. Ours are a boy and a girl, almost three and one (in September), and they have been sharing a room since she was four months old. We have the space, but we have a big playroom so all we needed was a place for them to crash at night with a changer and a dresser, no toy storage. They are both good sleepers, so in the night if one wakes up the other usually sleeps through it. The only tough time is bedtime. One day they will both go down fine. The next day Ben will pass out and Alina will babble and scream and throw things for awhile. The next day she will be out and he will play for an hour. The next day he will keep her up laughing. It’s always different. Since teething there have been a few nights that she actually used the baby swing again to fall asleep. But, we have a free craft/guest room, and I love the bonding. Whatever nighttime antics we go through aren’t really new, haha I know all moms can hear me on that one! I mean, they are either screaming in the same room or we have to go into two rooms to soothe and shush and replace pacis. It sort of feels more convenient! She also makes him feel more secure at night so he isn’t as scared of the dark (kind of hilarious but for a kid I guess another sleeping body is sometimes all it takes).

It took them about a month to settle in, but now they love it and I think it will keep them close, until they reach that awkward point where they will obviously need some tween space to gossip on their cell phones. Any reason why you don’t want to put Weston right in there? I know Will isn’t the best sleeper at night, is that getting any better?

Yes. Will is not great at going to bed but that’s not really it. We know that we want more kids and we want each of them to experience sharing a room at one point or another. We are pretty flexible about the timing of it all happening.
xo – kb

I am excited about this update on Weston’s room. I have to tell you that by you not acting like it was a big deal that Weston didn’t have a nursery ready when he was born has really helped me. What I mean is I am expecting our second child currently and there is just not enough time to get the nursery done perfectly before she gets here and I am ok with that. I know some people would just think that is horrible but it is what it is. Daily life takes over and expectations have to be reigned in and IT. WILL. GET. DONE. SOME. DAY!!

Oh I was there the entire time. A guy in a hasmat suit came and poured this powder over everything. We had to drape the kids so that the dust wouldn’t get on them…but I couldn’t move them because they were asleep in the stroller and the stroller was just gonna spread the paint everywhere. I almost cried.
xo – kb

A hazmat suit?! Omg…it was latex paint that was spilled! I work at Home Depot (sometimes in the paint department) and we spill paint the odd time, never needing a hazmat suit! Sorry, I’m not trying to laugh this off as I honestly would’ve been very angry at my stroller being affected, but I got the mental image and had to giggle.

It kind of reminded me of Monsters Inc. when the big orange monster had a sock stuck on him and everyone went nuts and he was surrounded by the guys in those suits!

Did they clean your stroller at least? I would hope so…glad you got free paint anyways 🙂

FINGERS CROSSED you do a post on painting trim in rooms with carpet!! I’m going to have to tackle this in our new house since the previous owners painted the trim in every.room to match their 70s paint. Headache. We didn’t have time to paint every inch of trim before the new carpet was installed and I’ve been scratching my head, and avoiding the issue. YAY for white trim!

I noticed your site because my daughter’s name is Katie Bower, but I stay because I love everything you do with your house. It reminds me of when I was young with so much energy. Maybe if I keep looking I will tackle repainting my whole house again! Keep it up!

Love the color! So this is a random question, but why so much wood rot? Did the previous owners go cheap on windows? Or is it common in your area?

Our 8-month old daughter, Clara, was in her own room for 4-months then had a rough few nights of teething and has been in our room for 2-weeks. My husband and I have both said how much we missed having her with us!!

I’m not sure all the reasons but I know a big one is that they didn’t use flashing around the windows when they were installed. There was a lot of ‘cut corners’ since the previous owner was a builder. Also, I know that when you ignore getting an area fixed and painted, the rot can spread really fast.
xo – kb

Hi Katie, love all the hard work going on up in GA at your place. Must be so fun to see some major projects that have been on your list being worked on after all that saving.

Question for you – with two little men so close in age and knowing that you would like to be blessed with a large family, what is your thought process for not having the boys share a room?

My two little ones are 18 months apart and have been sharing a rrom once our dear sweet daughter moved out of our room and it is so amazing to listen to them play and giggle with each other at night before going to sleep or in the mornings. Just curious as to your thoughts.

AHHHHH!!!! Wasps!!!! Did you find out where their nest was? My greatest fear is that a hive of bees will nest in my walls. It happens. And I hate that it happens. Wasps/Yellow jackets/Bees and I have a long standing feud that will not likely end until I’m dead…hopefully not from bee stings.

haha! We kept noticing they would be coming in and it was very obvious that there was insects coming in through the huge gap in the window (dead bugs on the floor surrounding the window)…so after we inspected the window we kept noticing that there would be small hives attached right inside the gap. I didn’t realize they had one hidden behind the center window vinyl until we started thinking about doing the wood repair outside. They just liked the dry and protected area 🙂
xo – kb

I love the colour. we are moving in 18 days and my almost 15 yr old and almost 13 yr old daughters will be sharing a room. And they are very excited about it. Hopefully they will still be happy about it this time next year! they have never shared before.

I chuckled at “the blue room” because when we moved into our house a couple years ago, the biggest of the kid-allocated bedrooms (the one our boys, 11 & 8 at the time, would share) was “the pink room”! Pink walls, pink carpet…looked like a bottle of pepto had exploded in there! We joked with them at first & said we liked it & were leaving it that way, but it was the 1st room to get worked on. It got dark wood (laminate but people never believe it’s not the real thing) flooring…& gray walls 🙂 When our daughter (12 at the time) saw the finished room, she loved it so much she wanted the exact same color & floor & we had enough materials left over to grant her wish!

I would have been mortified if the paint spill would have happened to me. Especially after I read that both your little ones were asleep and you had to cover them up while the paint was being cleaned. You deserve a reward for that!

You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last to spill a gallon of paint at Home Depot! I dropped a gallon of blue paint at the checkout, splattering it, my favorite flip flops and my designer handbag!

Those boys are such cuties! I have two boys as well and I have also forbidden them to grow up. Out of the question. 😉 The room is coming along great! Can’t wait to see it all finished! Have a great week, Miss Katie!

Katie- “long time listener, first time caller!” We’ve just bought our first house (!) and are starting to think about paint…so.many.options. Why do you color match BM to Behr paint? Price, coverage, convenience? And how does one do that exactly? Thanks in advance!

I liked the BM color and sometimes other brands don’t have as many options. I just take the swatch in to Home Depot and ask them to do a gallon of Behr in the color of my choice in eggshell. It’s easier than me driving across town sometimes 🙂
xo – kb

It does have one small round window. And yes, it probably would qualify as a bedroom…and is definitely big enough. We always said that two kids can share Will’s current room and put all their junk in that room…and if they needed their own space, then we would let them decide who gets the tiny room 🙂
xo – kb

Have you guys considered changing the layout of the upstairs at all? If this is a forever home, you could easily get a 5th bedroom upstairs! Seems like all the sink books, closets, and play nook could be transformed into a better use of space? Then again, kids love nooks and I’m sure it’ll be an awesome play space.

Yes, it probably could…but we figure that if two kids share Will’s current room, then all their junk can go in the play nook area. I like that we have big closets and honestly, if we changed the layout at all, I would not reconfigure the kids rooms…I would add another room over the foyer. 2 story foyers are beautiful but a huge waste of space in my book.
xo – kb

SO many rooms – what fun to get to decorate them all! I am a bit confused with the layout – can you add door spots next time? I’m guessing you can only get to the playnook through Will’s room which is why it wouldn’t be a bedroom every, is that right?

I’ll try…it’s a hard program for me to work with so it is time consuming…but if I find a free hour or so, I’ll try to add some doors. And yes…you can get to it through the jack n jill bathroom and through Will’s room.
xo – kb

Oh, my gosh. Kids are the worst. I have seven and NOT ONE of them would obey my orders and stay little!!!!! I don’t understand why they all think they need to grow up! *sigh*, guess we’ll just have to keep trying, lol. Good thing we like the older versions, too- we even like our teenagers and now grown children. Your boys are completely adorable! Our 18 month old girl is in our bed and every night we say we should start kicking her out, but our desire for sleep and a cuddly baby wins!

Katie! I read your blog almost everyday. I love you and Sherry over on younghouselove 🙂 I haven’t commented up until now. But saw your last comment about moving the boys into your bed permanently. DO IT!! 🙂 My little one just turned a year… didn’t listen to a word I said about not growing up!! Anyway, we had her in the bed “just for the 4th trimester”… and she is still there!! We love waking up w/ her and she will hold our faces in her little hands and “talk” to us. I think she is telling us about her dreams, but who knows!! Hahaha! My husband and I are both very FOR co-sleeping. 🙂 OH and I just love love your blog and your adorable boys and cute “boyfriend” you two make the cutest couple. Ok, enough gushing. Thank you for being a bright spot on the internet… ok now I am really done 🙂